As Google, Apple and Microsoft scramble to patch a long missed security flaw it might be timely to remember how we got here. Way back at the latter end of the last century – the 1990s, when Netscape browser was all the rage and – SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption was brand-spanking-new, the U.S. government wanted control over export of “weapons grade” encryption.

Its theory was that domestic communications could benefit from stronger, 128-bit encryption, but ‘backdoors’ should be available to U.S. intelligence and law enforcement when it came to foreign communications, the concept of weaker, “export grade” encryption was born.

Turns out that this theory and it’s legacy backdoor, a vulnerability that we’ve come to know in recent days as ‘FREAK’ still exists in up to 30 percent of U.S. web servers. It’s a sad example of how zombie-security from the era that gave us grunge can come back and bite us on the posterior.

Meanwhile, Apple and Google are saying they’ve developed fixes/patches – though we note Apple has yet to deploy – to mitigate the ‘Freak’ security flaw. Initially thought to be immune, Microsoft released an advisory which warned hundreds of millions of Windows PC users are also vulnerable to the security vulnerability :: Read the full article »»»»

There’s a reason Microsoft left such a huge chasm between CEO’s – remember the hijinks of Steve B? and congratulations to new CEO Satya Nadella – it seems the folk that pick these people might need a little self reflection.

Having ranted all that, it seems the new CEO has done something we all thought unattainable, he’s made people give a f_ck about Microsoft for the first time in years.

Nadella achieved this emotional engagement by offering up the most misogynisticly deplorable advice to women in the workplace. Not since Australia’s Prime Minister advised women to dull-down their expectations has a man at the top uttered such fowl advice.

“I think it’d be folly to expect that women will ever dominate or even approach equal representation in large numbers, simply because their aptitudes, abilities and interests are different for physiological reasons” Tony Abbott

According to Nadella the female ‘confidence gap’ is a sham? Nadella made his pickled remarks on stage at an event to celebrate the marginalized accomplishments of women in the technology industry… Seriously?! :: Read the full article »»»»

Microsoft is a little over a month away from killing off its überpopular Windows XP operating system – April 8, 2014 – However, it seems that punters aren’t entirely in agreement with the tech-giants death yell.

February’s trends for XP and Windows 8 were unwelcome news at Microsoft, but perhaps not unexpected. In the past weeks the company has been reduced to asking customers for help in shrinking XP’s still-strong presence and has reportedly severely slashed the price of Windows 8 licenses to makers of low-priced devices in an effort to boost sales.

Much to the chagrin of Microsoft, for the second month in a row, Windows XP and Windows 8 both defied the maker’s wishes, XP, which Microsoft just wants to go away, gained user share, and Windows 8, the OS Microsoft hopes will fuel sales of new devices, flatlined in February.

Windows XP increased its share by .3 of a percentage point in February, ending the month at 29.5 percent of all personal – desktop and notebook – computers globally. In January, XP had gained a quarter of a point. The fact that the well-aged operating system accounts for a third of all Windows based PCs also has to have Microsoft tearing out strands of hair. Killing off the OS is likely to upset once loyal Microsoft devotees, but is anything likely to halt the funeral? Not a hope in hell according to Microsoft

UPDATED! 16 March, 2014: Microsoft has upped the ante in its lame attempt to lure users away from it’s almost defunct OS, offering a $50 carrot for users who buy a new Windows 8.1 device :: Read the full article »»»»

Microsoft’s head of Devices, Julie Larson-Green has caused a stir in the tablet market, unofficially announcing that the Tech-behemoth would only be running with two – of three – operating systems for mobile devices.

Microsoft currently runs Windows Phone, RT and Windows 8 on tablets and phones. Punters are betting large on RT being the odd OS out.

RT was developed solely to take advantage of ARMs 32-bit architecture, giving devices like Surface super thinness and power efficiency. RT is a cutdown version of Windows 8, sitting smack in the middle of Phone and 8, with more functionality than Phone but less functionality of 8.

Devices currently running Windows RT have a selection of scaled back, bundled programs – MS Office 2013 – however, it’s inherently incompatible with previous versions of Windows. Punters it seems are flexing their purchasing power, choosing full-blown Windows 8 rather than the OEM only RT as their tablet OS :: Read the full article »»»»

Just a week after CEO Steve Ballmer spruked his retirement, Microsoft has announced it will buy Nokia’s mobile phone unit for almost $8 billion. The Finnish phone maker will grant Microsoft a 10-year non-exclusive licence to its patents, and will itself focus on network infrastructure and services :: Read the full article »»»»

Microsoft’s outlandish chief executive Steve Ballmer has announced he’s got his heart set on retirement. The gregarious CEO reckons he’s pensioning himself off within the coming 12 months.

It is the opinion of this blogger that Microsoft under Ballmer’s helmsman-ship has missed many obvious opportunities, leaving the once mighty company languishing in cyber-nomans land.

Ballmer’s retirement might just open a new chapter for Microsoft, while its Windows OS is used in the vast majority of personal computers. Microsoft during Ballmer’s 13 years of control has had little impact in the fast-growing mobile device segment.

The tech-behemoth has faced a slurry of criticism for not keeping pace with this fast-evolving tech-sector. A large part of Microsoft’s problem seems to be a huge lack of self-concept, 15 years ago the company quite willingly accepted that it wasn’t the cool-kid on the block, Mr Gates indeed embraced his uncoolness.

15 years ago the tech-galaxy seemed balanced. Apple had creatives covered, the NASDAQ had a bunch of competitors to fill each niche between Microsoft’s dullness and Apples glistening stardom. This was a plus-place for Microsoft to be, so long as it stayed away from Apples end of the market, so long as it stayed boring.

While Apple has gone from strength to strength, Microsoft’s continuous failure at recognizing what it does super-well, the dull stuff, OS and Office, and there isn’t a thing wrong with that. Unless of course you’ve become slightly insecure, forgotten who your buddies are and you’ve grown a need to play with the good-looking kids. Microsoft has sacrificed it’s solid image in a futile attempt at cornering the glamour-end of tech. I realise this sounds like a bit of hot air, but (I need to say this: old people love Microsoft)

Old people love Windows 8, the OS and amazingly the phone. The fastest – and most ignored – group of technology consumers LOVES WINDOWS 8! So who does Microsoft market Windows 8 to… clever little bumpkins, trendites and fashion conscious iPhone owners? :: Read the full article »»»»

The encrypted email service used by US fugitive, Edward Snowden has abruptly shut down, amid a legal fight involving US government attempts to win access to user information.

“I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people, or walk away from nearly 10 years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit,” Lavabit owner Ladar Levison wrote in a letter posted on the Texas-based company’s website.

Lavabit was founded in 2004 by Texas-based programmers, allegedly prompted by privacy concerns about Gmail, Google’s free, widely-used web-based email service, and their use of the content of users’ email to generate advertisements and marketing data.

Lavabit offered significant privacy protection for their users’ email, including asymmetric encryption. The strength of the cryptographic methods used was of a level that is difficult for even intelligence agencies to crack.

Notorious hacker and founder of Ghacks called the secure email service “probably the most secure, private email service right now”. In July 2013, Lavabit had about 350,000 users, it offered free and paid accounts with levels of storage ranging from 128 megabytes to 8 gigabytes.